Japan faces a declining population and there is no doubt an aging trend in the Japanese society. In the agricultural sector, this trend is quite obvious: The average age of farmers in Japan was 66.6 in 2017.

Earlier this month, Breeders Trust - an organisation looking after the interest of a.o. potato breeders - revealed a major fraud, concerning the switching of at least 200 tons of potatoes meant for consumption, to seed potatoes.

In a recent interview with the Global Potato News magazine, Prof Francine Govers at the Laboratory of Phytopathology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands says she believes it is essential to approach the problem of late blight control.